Cacophony
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapters: 1/2
Genre: Drama
Summary: What if it had been Sakura and not Naruto who had stood up against Sasuke and his subordinates when they abused their rights as the Uchiha police force of Konoha? Would it have made a difference? Based on episode 443.
A/N: It was one of the best and most intense filler episodes imo. :P It gave me this bug that I couldn't get out of my head.
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1: Discord
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"Hey you, grandma! Who gave you the permission to open a shop?" A member of the Uchiha police force barked at a tiny old woman, who only hoped to do something useful with her remaining time by opening a shop.
"But I was hoping I could at least do something useful with my remaining time," She tried to convince the young men of her last wish but they showed no emotional response. Intimidated by the four police officers glaring harshly at her, she backed against the shutters of the shop she wanted to open.
The officer right in front of her barked out a laugh. "You can do that in your grave. Konoha is filled with enough baggage. We don't need anymore."
The black-hearted young man reached out for the grandma's throat with his hand but was stopped by a dark-gloved one which clamped tightly around his wrist, threatening to break it.
"Don't touch her, you bastard," Sakura Haruno, the new apprentice of Lady Tsunada, one of the legendary sanin, hissed.
Uchiha Sasuke was taken back at first but then smirked menacingly. Grinned maliciously.
"Ah, is this Sakura?" He drawled, taking in her body for the first time after his six-month absence with half-lidded, malicious eyes. Obviously he was quite charmed by her new fashion style that manifested itself in a sharp red vest, light gray skirt and hooker boots (the name was a courtesy of Ino), his gaze lingering at places that made her uncomfortable and never forget the difference in their genders. It was as if his eyes could seep through the layers of her clothes and strip her bare.
"Sasuke-kun," she greeted him back but not without a sharp narrowing her fierce green eyes.
"Not afraid to break the rules anymore that you're officially Lady Tsunada's apprentice?" The Uchiha asked now no longer, the Sasuke-kun she knew from the academy years ago.
"Not afraid to show how what kind of coward you're in reality now?" Sakura snapped back, hitting a sore spot of the Uchiha lieutenant whose eyes darkened and lips twisted into a grimace, but the display of ugly emotions only made him all the more beautiful.
"I can't believe you would stoop low enough to bully an elderly woman," She growled first at Sasuke then at his minions, whose mediocre looks only served to strengthen beauty of the deadly young man she used to love. The tiny old woman flinched when Sakura mentioned and used her chance to scurry away unnoticed.
"Hey woman, are you going to let go of my wrist in this century?" The officer asked with feigned boredom, not taking her seriously because of her short height and her gender. Big mistake. She had a score to settle with him, a big score.
In the next moment, she punched him in the face, sending him crashing against the store behind him.
An ordinary civilian would've been dead already but he was not one. Shakily he got up, holding his chest after the air had been knocked out of his lungs and glared at her.
Immediately, Sakura was flooded with a torrent of unwanted memories of her time in the academy, where she had not only been bullied by girls but also by boys. By the bastard she had just sent flying. He and his friends were now standing right in front of her as members of the Uchiha police force.
"You bitch," he growled and Sakura felt a slice of panic cutting into her as she remembered how often she had been humiliated by him in class but then glared hard at him.
She adjusted the glove her dominant hand and whispered with the same menace the officers had faced the defenseless grandma. "It's payback time, bastards."
"I'm going to pound you into a bloody pulp," the bastard growled and his two friends took on a fighting stance, surrounding Sakura.
They approached Sakura until she was surrounded by the four taller men but she was unshaken.
However, only as long as Sasuke was not walking towards her until he was standing right in front of her and smiling with half-lidded, smoky eyes and just the right amount of malice that would make a girl weak in the knees.
It was just not fair.
He looked so good in his police uniform, so impressive and dominant that she wanted to get on her knees and submit to him. Or allow him to force her into submission. To have him yank hard on her hair whenever she tried to back away or satisfy him willingly to the point that he could only purr in content.
"Sakura," Sasuke purred. And, she backed from him unwillingly as her skin tingled from the purr of his voice. "Do you really want to fight me?" He asked with a gentle smile so fake it would give Sai a run for his money.
She couldn't run anymore as he extended his hand towards her and she expected him to lock it around her throat and choke her into unconsciousness, but instead he only gently cupped her cheek. The feeling of his warm hand on her cheek was so intoxicating that she closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment but then-
She found herself staring into the activated Sharingan of Uchiha Sasuke who was not standing right in front of her, but facing her with a distance of several meters. The three stigmas within Sasuke's crimson irises spun before he deactivated his Sharingan and his eyes turned back to black.
She had been caught in an illusion.
He had shown her an illusion, and she had fallen for it.
Damn it. Damn the power he still had over her.
And then, the bastard lunged at Sakura, the kunoichi who used to be their bully victim.
Sakura reacted in an instant and send him flying again, this time with a roundhouse kick against the jaw, making sure he would not wake up again for the next 24 hours. They surrounded her and leashed out with their attacks, not holding back at all in spite the fact that she was a follow kunoichi of Konoha and with that their ally, but Sakura evaded their blows and kicks smoothly, repaying them tenfold that however didn't even require a fraction of her true strength. She sent them all to their knees, then on their face.
In the past, she had not been able to do so. She had been a victim all day long at the academy, having had to face physical threats on a daily basis but those times were over now.
She was going to take it back. To take it all back.
Possessed by her emotions, Sakura didn't stop, not caring about fair-play.
"People like you," she began through gritted teeth.
Rotten. Self-serving, malicious, and devoid of any compassion for others. She bent down and grabbed the unconscious bastard by his collar, pulling him to her level.
"There are enough of you in this world already. We don't need any more of you," she said with a dangerous edge in her voice, then pulled her arm back to ensure that he would need facial surgery once he woke up but a strong hand clamped around her forearm, successfully stopping her.
"Sakura," Sasuke's deep, smooth voice caressed her ears but at the same time it cut like a razor through her. "That's enough."
Sasuke didn't care for her; he just saw her as a nuisance and avoided her whenever he could, so the fact that he was protecting the shitheads who had been tormenting her for so long provoked an all-consuming fire inside her.
"What's the wrong with you anyway?" Sasuke inquired. "You usually don't go that far."
Sakura's hand released the bastard's black collar so that his body dropped in a graceless heap on the dirty ground. Turning around, she faced Sasuke but her bangs were obscuring the raging fire in her eyes.
"I'm going to take it back," she hissed him.
Sasuke frowned at her cryptic words.
"Take what back?" He asked with a raise of an elegant eyebrow.
"My dignity," she growled, snapping her head up to stare right back at him. "I'm going to take my dignity on which your motherfucking minions-,"
And from you
"-tramped on, even if it means to lose everything that defines me."
Upon hearing the words that have been buried and burning for so long in Sakura's chest, Sasuke's eyes narrowed maliciously. "Huh, your dignity? Everything that defines you? Sounds thrilling, honey. Fine, but this time," he drawled before his gaze hardened. "Your opponent will be me," he drawled. Smoothly, he extracted his chokuto from its sheath and his body shifted into a fighting position.
"Try to give me a run for my money, Sakura."
Sakura mimicked him, only that she removed a small kunai from her compact equipment bag strapped to the back of her waist instead of a sword. In the back of her mind, she wished she had a katana or a sai, knowing that she was at a disadvantage here but her anger pushed back her insecurity.
Then, he lunged at her without a second of hesitation, not taking into consideration at all that she used to be completely at the mercy of his and Naruto's protection after they graduated from the academy and had to go on dangerous assigned missions.
It was hard to parry his blows with the sword, and she hated herself for being unable to deny it.
He was fast and strong. Her muscles were already straining under the pressure of his blows- but she kept up with him albeit not without difficulties. However, then he suddenly disappeared in front of her, only to suddenly reappear behind her in a swish of air and a blur of shadow.
"Too slow," Sasuke taunted, his dulcet voice laced with malicious amusement, before giving her a hard shove that sent her stumbling forward. It had been the perfect opportunity for him to give her the death-blow but he had purposely forsaken the opportunity because he didn't take her seriously. Just like Ino. Just like back then when Ino had held back instead of giving her a death-blow when she had the opportunity to do so during the genin tournament three years ago.
Sakura managed to catch herself, avoiding stumbling to the ground right in front of Sasuke, and turned around to glare at him.
He was toying with her.
"Is that all you have got? You're just talk but no real substance," he patronized her. Then, he smirked. "Just like back then."
Her dominant fist clenched, making the leather of her glove crackle.
This was the man she used to love.
This man was going out of his way to protect those who had humiliated her in the academy.
She was going to tear him to pieces.
"I'm going to tear you to pieces!" Sakura yelled, lunging at him with renewed fury, which send a flood of adrenaline surging through her body, which in return sharpened her skills.
She was at the offense now, relentlessly pushing her beloved Sasuke-kun back but he still parried her attacks with a smoothness she had always envied. Sakura was aiming at various vulnerable spots of her opponents body: collar-bone, chest, stomach, however, in the end it was still Sasuke who disarmed her first, sending her kunai flying in a spinning motion across the air, then hitting the ground with its tip first. However, that created an opening for Sakura because Sasuke let his guard down and she repaid the favor by aiming a swift kick against his wrist, causing his chokuto to sail through the air and penetrate the wall of a nearby shop.
Sakura saw her chance.
The format of the fight had changed.
Sakura leashed out at him with her fists and knees, fully intending to smash his cheekbones and his pelvis but she was too slow for Sasuke; he kept on evading her all blows and kicks, which fissured the earth. And, then in the middle of this cat-and-mouse game which would have looked like a violent fist fight to a bystander, he managed to catch one of her wrist, which took the wind out of her sail but also fueled Sakura's anger in return. Narrowing her eyes, she swung her other arm at him, too blinded by fury to realized that this was a far too obvious move and with that a totally wrong move. He caught her other arm, too, restraining her primary and secondary "disarming" her in one or another way.
Now he had both of her gloved hands imprisoned in his ones, which had become quite masculine, and he yanked her by her wrists close to him. She tried to yank them out of his grip but he held on tight, only jerking her closer to him.
Suddenly the fight became heated but… for all the wrong reasons.
"What's the matter, sweetheart? You appear to be quite angry? I Did I ignore you one time too many? Did you want to be acknowledged by me that badly?" Sasuke sneered at her, his words hitting her right where it hurt.
Suddenly the fight went into a completely different direction and Sakura found herself threading on hot coals.
His grip on her wrists was tight and although she was tugging with all her might, she couldn't break free from him; she was losing this contest of strength. Belatedly, she realized why. His long elegant fingers encircled her wrists almost completely and at the same time they were digging into her chakra spots, cutting off the flow, the trick he was using extremely similar to Hygua Neji's specialty. No wonder she couldn't channel her chakra.
Although he was taunting her with cold laughter in his voice but the dark intensity in his half-lidded eyes told her how much he was truly despising her.
Sakura narrowed her eyes. Two could play this game. "Did you want to be acknowledged by Itachi that badly, Sasuke-kun? Are you that afraid to be inferior to him? Is that why you're projecting your inferiority complex on me?" Then, she gave him the delivering blow. "Is that why you're seeing yourself in me?"
She had him here. His eyes narrowed dangerously before a look of pure, unaltered fury spread across his eerily beautiful face that was reminiscent to a sad painting.
"SHUT UP, YOU BITCH! What the hell do you know about me, you pathetic cock-sucking slut!" Sasuke yelled at her, his chakra surging up around him in a crescendo, its malice practically licking at her skin.
She sensed his murderous intent, knowing he fully intended to break both of her wrists in the next seconds with a tightening of his hands, but she raised her knee high in the air, targeting his jaw, forcing him to release her in favor of protecting his lower facial bones.
This was not how she had planned for the events to unfold but it was too late to take her words back now, not that she had any desire to do so. Uchiha Sasuke had stamped on her feelings with his feet one time too many. Sakura clenched her fists inside her gloves as Sasuke activated his Sharingan, letting his black eyes bleeding to crimson as his glare pierced her.
"I was going to go easy on you for old-time's sake but now you've done it. I'm going to show you why you can never catch up to me." Then, his voice lowered as he promised her, "I'm going to put you in your place."
Sasuke's graceful hands formed a series of seals: Ox, Rabbit, Monkey, Dragon-
No way. A tickle of sweat ran down Sakura's temple.
He was going to use chidori on her!
An orb of electivity accumulated in his left hand, the sound of birds chirping rippling through the air.
One Thousand Birds.
Gripping his left shoulder to channel the power of One Thousand Birds, Sasuke lunged at her and Sakura steadied herself.
Three meters distance.
Two meters distance.
One.
Zero.
An explosion erupted, puncturing the wall of a nearby and fortunately empty shop, bits of debris and dust swirling in the air.
Sasuke was astonished.
His arm had not plunged through her left shoulder just as intended but was now captured in both of her hands, hovering in the space right beside her mid-section because she had turned her body away from him in the last few seconds and caught his limb. Sakura was still holding her breath, as tense as a person facing the savage blow of the chidori would be, still a little dazed and disbelieving that her little trick had worked. When dealing with an attack like the chidori, which was a short-range attack, highly dependent on the arm, it was important to target the limb instead of the orb of blazing electricity. She had learned that when she watched in terror how Kakashi-sensei had stopped Sasuke from plunging his chidori through Naruto and Naruto from plunging his rasengan through Sasuke.
"Not bad," he drawled coolly.
"I'm not going to let you take anymore away from me!" Sakura exclaimed then proceeded to twist Sasuke's arm behind his back, bending him forward.
"Take anymore away from you?" He echoed her words before it clicked in his mind. "Ah…I see you're talking about your so-called dignity. However, don't you think it's a little too late to grow a back-bone now? Shouldn't you have rather done that years ago?"
"Shut up!" Sakura twisted his arm harder behind his back, increasing the pressure but he was completely unfazed.
"You're so cute," he crooned then reversed their situation by skillfully angling his body towards and breaking free out of her arm-lock by tossing her swiftly over his shoulder, but Sakura didn't land on her back, rolling to her feet instead.
However, right afterward Sasuke appeared behind her. He looped a strong arm around her neck from behind, locking it right below her jawline. Sakura barely had time to register what had just happened and she could barely breath, her hands snapping immediately up to grab at his arm.
"As much as I prefer straightforward fight, I will deal with you the way you might enjoy, I guess," Sasuke stated with a smirk, and Sakura had a bad premonition about this.
"Do you know what is the quickest way to knock a girl out?" he whispered maliciously into her ear, earning a shiver from her. "Yes, that's right. It's to choke her out."
Sakura knew that she had to act instantly before her air supply was reduced to nothing, planning to deliver a fatal blow to his kidney but he must've sensed her intent because in the next moment he already grabbed her wrist with his free hand, pulling it off his arm to lock it beneath it. He had her now, Sakura realized with a chill. Both of her arms were now sealed in one or another way; one arm was taken hostage in the death-grip of his hand and her other one was helplessly trapped beneath the interlocked blockage of her own and Sasuke's arm.
Sakura whined from the pressure of his arm against her throat, unable to hold back the choking noises any longer. Behind her, she could feel Sasuke's lips curving into a smug, sensual smirk that was highly out of place against the top of her head. His hips pressed harder against her lower back- he was enjoying this, that sick bastard! Although, she knew that she was hardly always clean from dirty fighting; it was not the case that she had never choked someone else before, be it female or male, but experiencing it herself from quite a different experience. Maybe, this was karma.
I can't breath! Sasuke-kun, you wouldn't really…
Choke her into unconsciousness, wouldn't he?
Her knees pressed harder against each other as she could no longer stand completely upright, struggling to stay conscious.
"Sas-kue, can'- breath!"
"What's the matter, Sa-ku-ra? I hope you're not pleading me to let you go after you promised me to make me pay," he crooned sweetly into her ear.
Sakura knew she had lost. How was she going to get out of this?
The seconds tickled by…she couldn't move her arms at all, his grip on them was too tight, which meant that she also couldn't slip out a kunai from her waist bag and stab him with it.
Her heels dug deeper into the sandy earth. Then, suddenly she realized belatedly that she could still move her legs- and even both of them! Without any hesitation, she raised one slender but leanly-muscled leg and stomped on Sasuke's toes as hard as she could, thanking the gods that they were all wearing sandals.
He cried out in agony. The toes were one of the most sensitive of the human body after all and even someone as powerful as Sasuke could not handle the pain inflicted on them, which forced him to let her go. Sakura immediately dropped to her knees but it was pure will-power that enabled her to roll away from him. Then, she gripped her throat, coughing vehemently as Sasuke straightened himself for another attack, which she feared.
If she could just somehow enhance her speed to keep up with him in that aspect.
However, it turned out that it would not be necessary anymore to ponder about it.
"SAKURA!" Ino's voice reverberated through the air in the deserted avenue.
"Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice followed one moment after.
Sakura turned around to face her friends, still clutching her throat, Sasuke's arm still burning on it, even though it was no longer there. Ino, Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji had come for her.
"Tsk," she heard him clicking his tongue in displeasure from afar, then pivoted on her heels to see him standing atop of a random shop.
"Sasuke, what did you do to her?!" Naruto shouted accusingly, his keen instincts immediately picking up what had just happened. The demolished surrounding and Sakura's wary, worn-out expression were louder than any tell-tales.
Sasuke smirked cockily with a heavy dose of malice. "Nothing that she didn't like," he practically purred, staring down at them all from where he stood before his eyes darkened again.
"This is not the end of it, Sakura. I won't let you get away just like this."
And with that ominous warning that chilled her to her core, Sasuke disappeared in a puff of smoke, which bore a frightening resemblance to a coiled cobra.
Sasuke was not a man of empty words, she knew. If he said that he would make her pay, then he would.
"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" Naruto was instantly by her side, fussing about every wound she got from Sasuke regardless of its degree or size. Sweet, kind-hearted Naruto who was the complete opposite of her beloved Sasuke-kun, always worrying and caring about her.
"I'm fine, Naruto," she placated him, forcing a faint smile on her face.
"Did Sasuke-teme do that to you?" Naruto growled, his thrilling blue eyes narrowing into slits as he took in the bruises Sasuke had left on her arms and legs, and as well as the open cuts.
"No, he didn't," Sakura lied but didn't know what had possessed her to do so. Maybe it was because she wanted to fuck him up herself and wanted everyone to stay out of her affair with Sasuke, or it was because of her misplaced pride that made her hide how she had almost lost to her former obsession.
"Then, why are you covered in bruises and cuts?" He asked frantically.
"I already got those bruises and cuts before I met Sasuke-kun," she quickly made up an excuse. "I had a self-enforced training session and used to bushins to fight with myself," she told him sheepishly. "Looks like I overdid it a little."
Fortunately, Naruto was convinced, nodding vigorously at her lie.
"Hm, hm I know exactly what you're talking about. Ero-senin always tells me to go at it slowly and that it's not how hard you train but how efficiently but-" Naruto started ranting and ranting but Sakura was already no longer listening, her tired mind drifting off somewhere else. Fighting Sasuke had certainly taken a toll on her psyche.
Unlike Naruto, Ino certainly looked unconvinced and asked sharply, "Then, why did Sasuke-kun threaten you before he disappeared, implying that he would hurt you the next time you see each other again? And, why does it look like you've been in a fight with him and his underlings?"
Perceptive as always, Sakura mused.
It would be hard to get out of this one. Better to stick as closely to the truth as possibly without giving it away, however.
"And, it wasn't me who had a fight with Sasuke-kun underlings. Sasuke-kun himself did. He found out that they threatened a helpless grandmother and beat them into bloody pulps therefore."
"Well…," Ino drawled pensively, pressing her finger against her lips unconsciously. "What you say indeed makes sense. Sasuke-kun has always been respectful towards elders after all."
"But that still doesn't explain why he was threatening you," Ino persisted on that topic, not letting it go.
Sakura knew she had no choice and went for the kill, therefore, tilting her head downwards, feigning the best blush she could. It wasn't that hard, she discovered to her dismay. Mimicking Hinata, she tilted her head down and curled her fingers against her lips in an act of shyness. "Sasuke-kun wasn't threatening me. He was being ambiguous when he made that threat."
"Huh, what do you mean, Sakura?" Ino's eyebrows furrowed in puzzlement. That was a good sign, which meant that she was confused but not disbelieving her.
"He…was trying to make "advances" on me before you all showed up," she was lying through her teeth, blushing furiously.
"What do you mean by "advances"- no way!" Ino finally understood. "Don't tell me you are talking about sexual advances! You mean he was trying to seduce you?!"
"Yeah, you know, he had to… bottle up a lot of sexual tension during his stay at the Uchiha police force academy, and he is no longer thirteen as you all know."
It was one of the most embarrassing thing she ever had to say in life but at least her lie was a success; everyone believed her. Whereas Ino made a fuss, Naruto was outraged, their reaction making her smile bitter-sweetly.
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However, in that night Sakura Haruno couldn't sleep. She knew that what she had done was wrong.
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Sakura headed to the Hokage tower, fully intending to right the wrong by reporting Sasuke's horrendous abuse of power to the yondaime. She didn't know what had gotten into her and lied to her friends about what he had done, inadvertently protecting him by doing so, even if unintentionally. Her sense of pride was truly misplaced, she admitted, very ashamed of herself. Sasuke's wrongdoings were putting the civilians in danger and when it came down it, there was nothing she could do to stop him. Just what had she been thinking when she let him get away with his crimes? But then again, she was never thinking rationally around the pretty boy who had grown into a beautiful young man, right?
As she was walking underneath the rooftop that shielded the path to the hokage tower, she was lost in her thoughts when suddenly a strong hand clamped around her mouth from behind, imprisoning her against the body of a man. Another arm was additionally locked around her, pinning one of her arms against her chest. Her pulse quickened in a mixture of fear and something darker she didn't want to admit.
Her own body recognized that body in an instant even though she couldn't see it fully, remembering how it felt to fight against it. This hold was completely different from the holds he usually applied on in the past or even the one he used on her when he choked her; this one was of a sexual nature, oozing dark promises.
"Are you going to report me, Sakura?" He sing-songed into her ear, mocking her.
The hand that was not trapped grabbed Sasuke's larger wrist in panic as Sakura struggled to break free, suddenly feeling like a defenseless rabbit trapped in the chokehold of a snake. She was mentally weaker than him and she will always be, which she was painfully reminded of it as Sasuke subdued her primary with the force of his will. So she was still at his mercy. It was so much harder to take something that belonged to her back, wasn't it, even if it was something that rightfully belonged to her. Of course, what had she expected? She had been mistreated by this man since the time they had formed a team and she had happily allowed it to happen, greedily swallowing all the scrapes of attention he tossed her, hadn't she? She was hungry, so hungry and terribly starved for love.
She tried to scream her voice but it was suffocated under Sasuke's palm and suddenly a slice of panic cut through her. It was his mere will he reinforced on her that caused her to forget how to use chakra and how to defend herself. Suddenly she received a short, bitter taste of how it would've been if she had been an ordinary citizen; she would've been no match against Sasuke's brute strength and his tall height of which she was reminded as his chin pressed against the top of her strawberry-pink head.
"If there is one thing I hate then it's women who proclaim their love to me and then try to betray me," Sasuke's baritone, dulcet voice drawled against her ear, and the underlying anger in it chilled her to the bones, like the notions of pins hidden on her bed by a nasty roommate.
Sakura struggled harder against his tight hold but he merely snatched her free wrist, confining it against her chest, robbing her off her last defense.
"Hmm…what's this?" She could hear the smirk in his voice. "Are afraid? Do you want to call for help? If you're lucky maybe the dobe is in the hokage tower along with his father?"
Sakura clenched her eyes shut. She was petrified, terrified. What was he going to do to her? And, why couldn't she fight back? Her own body wouldn't obey her. It was as if her nervous system was damaged, and her nerves weren't working.
No way, I can't fight him.
Naruto, help me!
Then, in the next moment, he had already disappeared in a puff of smoke with her, kidnapping her so close from the Hokage tower.